1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a colored/tinted contact lens preview device, and more particularly pertains to a colored/tinted contact lens preview device which is a beauty mirror sales aid to enable a person considering purchasing or wearing colored or tinted contact lenses to preview a particular color or tint pattern as it would appear as a colored or tinted contact lens on the eye of that person.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Colored and tinted contact lenses have gained great popularity as a result of the rise in the general acceptance of contact lenses, greater public sensitivity to personal appearance and improved contact lens structures (soft contact lenses, oxygen permeable contact lenses, etc.).
Colored and tinted contact lenses can be of two general categories. The first category includes contact lenses which use essentially transparent enhancement colors and allow the color of the contact lens to augment the natural color of the iris to produce a new appearance. Such tinted lenses might typically be used to turn a hazel eye to an aqua colored eye. This class of colored lenses may not be able to change an underlying dark colored iris to a different color, e.g. a brown iris to blue. The second category includes an opaque class of tinted lenses in which the color of the contact lens masks the natural iris color and presents a new color on the outside of the eye. This class of contact lenses is able to render a brown eye blue, etc.
Presently, persons fitting colored or tinted contact lens, such as ophthalmologists and optometrists, have to assist a patient to repeatedly try different tinted contact lenses by actually inserting, or having the patient insert, each pair into contact with the patient""s eyes so that the patient can see the color which results from the combined tint of the contact lens and the patient""s natural iris color. And often, previously tried tinted contact lens have to be retried in order for the patient to make a final decision as to which tint to order from the many colors which are offered.
Ranani U.S. Pat. No. 4,703,964 discloses a tinted contact lens preview device and fitter having a scissors type support to vary the spacing between pairs of tinted contact lenses mounted in rotatable discs, or in plug-in lens holders, or directly in openings in the support, so that the centers of the tinted contact lenses can be aligned with the centers of the patient""s pupils in order for the patient to view in a mirror the combined color of the tinted contact lenses and the color of the patient""s irises.
Each pair of lens holders for each different tint must be prepared separately by placing a tinted contact lens in saline solution in a lens holder and then sealing the lens holder with a closure. Pairs of lens holders, each containing a pair of soft contact lens of the same tint, must be prepared for each different available color.
To allow a patient to view different tints to obtain a desired color, an ophthalmologist or optometrist fitter must place into a lens receptacle different pairs of lens holders containing tinted contact lenses of different tints, and the patient then looks at the resulting colors and makes a decision as to which tint to order.
In another embodiment a pair of discs, each including a plurality of mounted tinted contact lenses, are interchangeably attached to the scissors support so that different colors may be viewed by rotating the discs or by changing the discs. Each disc has three U-shaped openings spaced 120 degrees apart. Each opening is adapted to receive a tinted contact lens in a contact lens holder. If the tinted contact lens is a soft contact lens, it is immersed in a saline solution.
In operation, each of the openings contains a tinted contact lens of a different color, with pairs of discs having matching tints in corresponding openings. First, the patient, with the aid of an ophthalmologist or optometrist fitter, adjusts the angle between the levers of the scissors support so that the center of the contact lens in each of the vertical top openings is aligned with the centers of the patient""s pupils. Then the resulting combined color of the tint of the contact lenses and the patient""s iris color is examined in a mirror. Then the patient or the fitter rotates the discs together to bring to the vertical top position a different pair of contact lenses having a matching tint, and checks the resulting combined color, until a desired tint is determined. Thus each disc permits the viewing of three different tints. And other pairs of discs, with contacts lenses of stiff different tints, can be substituted for the attached pair of discs.
The Ranani approach requires an expensive instrument which uses actual contact lenses mounted in lens holders, and moreover requires a great deal of time by an ophthalmologist or optometrist fitter during fitting and trial of different color/tint contact lenses. The Ranani approach also requires a somewhat cumbersome and time consuming fitting process which includes placing a pair of colored or tinted contact lenses into the scissors support, aligning the pair of colored or tinted contact lenses with the eyes of the patient to view the appearance, and then removing and replacing the previous pair of colored or tinted contact lenses with another pair of different colored or tinted contact lenses, and then repeating the fitting process for each different color or tint or pattern of interest.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a colored/tinted contact lens preview device as a contact lens beauty mirror sales aid which enables a person considering purchasing or wearing colored or tinted contact lenses to preview a particular color or tint pattern as it would appear as a colored or tinted contact lens on the eye of that person.
The preview device of the present invention substantially reduces the amount of time required by an ophthalmologist or optometrist to fit tinted contact lenses, and thus reduces the fitting cost, and also provides a preview device for fitting tinted contact lenses which is relatively inexpensive to construct and easy to use. More specifically, the preview device of the present invention is sufficiently easy and simple to use and inexpensive that a person in an ophthalmologist""s or optometrist""s office can preview different color and tint contact lenses without requiring the assistance of the ophthalmologist or optometrist (as in a waiting room).
In accordance with the teachings herein, the present invention provides a colored/tinted contact lens preview device which is a beauty mirror sales aid to enable a prospective purchaser or wearer of colored or tinted contact lenses to preview the appearance of different color or tint patterns of contact lenses as they would appear as a colored or contact lens on the eye of the person. The preview device comprises a transparent substrate with a selection of different color or tint circular or annular/toroidal patterns, each of which simulates a contact lens with that particular color or tint pattern. In usage, a person views their eye in a mirror with a particular color or tint pattern of interest superimposed over the eye, such that the preview device simulates the appearance of that particular color or tint contact lens on the eye of the person.